Choices and twists in our careers
By Dr. Selim Erhan, TLT Editor October 2026
The challenges we face help us to attain the knowledge and skills that shape us for the better.
Most of us voluntarily or involuntarily change jobs many times throughout our careers. There are times when these jobs are motivating and enjoyable and then others are a series of very unpleasant experiences. However, I can say especially to the younger readers that toward the end of a career, one sees that every experience adds to our knowledge and shapes the way we can evaluate even the most unpleasant experiences.
Even more than that, one realizes that some changes are to our benefit, and if we pay special attention to events that are not our doing, underneath we see that it teaches us very valuable skills and insights and helps us grow as human beings.
I will tell you about such a career: the life of Architect Mimar Sinan. It shows how the twists in life help us attain the knowledge and skills that shape us mostly for the better. He lived from 1488 to 1588 and was the chief architect of the Ottoman Empire during his adult career during the height of the empire's power. In the 44 years he was chief architect starting at age 50, he built more than 440 structures ranging from huge mosques, which required 10,000 plus workers and supplies from all over the empire and took over several years of construction, to bridges, government buildings and aqueducts that stretched over the vast empire. He was a genius for sure, a man with extraordinary vision and skill as an architect, an engineer and a stonemason. He learned from many talented people according to the palace records. What I want to point out is, from a much higher point of view, that he also had help from an extraordinary set of events.
He was born in central Anatolia. His father was a stonemason, from whom he learned about the different stones, and the skills to work with them. As the custom of those times, the palace would recruit teenagers and train them in the palace according to their skills. He was recruited and taken to Istanbul. Strangely enough he was not assigned to stonemasonry but was sent to the elite army corps, the Janissary. He soon found himself in a war in the Mesopotamia region. He survived and during his stay he was able to see the palaces and water works of the ancient Babylonia and Sumeria that went back thousands of years. His next war was in Egypt, where he again survived, and got a chance to study the pyramids. This was followed by the war in Hungary where again he had the chance to see cathedrals and castles in Europe. On the way back from this war, the army got stuck on the banks of a large river that had swollen with steady rains. They were looking for a way to build a strong bridge. He volunteered to build it and his quick success led to his rapid promotion, which started a trajectory that ended with the position of chief architect, which he held for 44 years.
Most of us would not choose battles and extreme hardships to build a career. But it was because of the circumstances he was put in that he accumulated a very significant amount of knowledge that he used to build the amazing structures he left behind. There are many similar stories that most of us have read or heard. The turns and twists that move us out of our comfort zones, conditions that are much harsher than we would have volunteered for, lead to enormous gains that we later become very thankful for. Difficult experiences seem to be helping us instead of hindering us.
I think we should look at every event and try to see how we can benefit from it as a learning tool that moves us to far better places.
Dr. Selim Erhan is the president of Erbur Solutions in Trout Valley, Ill. You can reach him at selim.erhan@outlook.com.